The three texts to send when a remodel proposal goes quiet
Exact words for the day three, day ten and day thirty follow-up after a remodeling proposal stops getting replies, and what each message is designed to learn.
You spent two site visits and a Sunday afternoon on a kitchen proposal, sent it Tuesday, and heard nothing. It is Friday. You do not want to be the contractor who pesters, so you wait, and by the time you follow up she has signed with someone who did.
Silence after a proposal is the normal case in remodeling, not the exception. A homeowner with a $40,000 decision on her desk does not reply because the decision is not made, and most contractors treat that as a no. It is not a no. It is a stall, and stalls respond to specific, low-pressure messages sent on a schedule. Here are the three I use, word for word.
Day three: the small question
The first message is not "did you get my proposal." She got it. The first message gives her something easy to answer that is not the big decision.
"Hi [name], [your name] from [company]. Quick one on the proposal I sent Tuesday: I priced the island with the waterfall edge as we discussed, but wanted to check whether you would rather see it both ways. Takes me ten minutes to add. Either way, no rush on the rest."
What it does: it proves you read your own proposal, it offers a small favor, and it gives her a reason to type a reply that has nothing to do with money. Most replies to this message contain the real objection in the second sentence. "Both ways would be great, honestly we are trying to figure out whether we can do the whole thing this year." Now you know.
If you have no natural detail to ask about, ask which of the three options she is leaning toward. Three options is the point of a good-better-best proposal, and the structure is in the pricing and quoting guide.
Day ten: the calendar, stated plainly
If the day three message got a reply, follow that thread. If it did not, the second message states a fact about your schedule that she cannot get anywhere else.
"Hi [name], no pressure at all on a decision. I wanted you to have the schedule picture: we have a January start open and after that the next full-kitchen slot is mid March. If January works for your family I can pencil it for a week while you decide. If the timing is off, tell me and I will stop bothering you."
What it does: it gives her a real deadline, not an invented one, and it gives her an easy out. That last sentence matters more than the rest. Homeowners stay silent because saying no feels rude. Offer them the no and a handful will take it, which closes the file and clears your head. Others will reply with a date question, which is a yes in progress.
Never put a discount in this message. A price cut ten days after a proposal tells her the first number was padded and invites a second round on every future change order.
Day thirty: the graceful close
If two messages went unanswered, one more, then stop.
"Hi [name], last note from me. I am assuming the project is on hold or you have gone another direction, which is completely fine. If it comes back around, the proposal is good for 60 days and I am happy to update pricing after that. Thanks for having me out to the house."
What it does: it lets her come back without embarrassment, and some do, months later, when the other contractor fell through or the money came together. Put her on a list for a short check-in in six months and move on.
The habits around the messages
Text, from a number she already has. Email gets lost under the proposal itself. Text gets read within minutes. Send from the same number you used to confirm the site visit.
Send them from a calendar, not from memory. Day three, day ten, day thirty. Put the three dates on the proposal's task the moment you send it. Contractors lose more proposals to forgetting the follow-up than to price. If your process is currently "I follow up when I think of it," the missed calls and follow-up guide shows how to automate the reminders without automating the words.
Keep the words yours. The messages above are a shape, not a script to paste. Change the detail in the first one to something real from her kitchen. Change the dates in the second one to your actual calendar. A homeowner can tell a template from a person, and remodeling is a trust purchase.
What this is worth
Say you send twelve proposals a quarter and close three. Recovering one additional signing per quarter from the stalls, which is a modest result for a follow-up sequence, is four more projects a year. At a $24,000 average, that is a meaningful year, and it came from nine short texts. Run your own numbers in the calculator.
The reason this works is that most of your competitors send nothing. Their proposal goes quiet and so do they. The homeowner reads that as disinterest, and she is usually right.
If you want the follow-up sequence built and firing on a schedule without doing it by hand, the free 14-day trial covers any service, no card, text or call.